Key to Umbria: Assisi
 


Patrician Palaces in Assisi


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Palazzo Giacobetti Vallemani has its own page in this site.

Palazzo Bartocci Fontana (16th century)

This palace, which incorporates a number of medieval buildings, is attributed to Giulio Danti.  It previously belonged to the Filipucci and then the Bindangoli family.  Its left wing now houses Hotel il Palazzo.

Palazzo Bernabei (1646)

The heirs of Bishop Francesco Sperelli of San Severino commissioned the design of this palace (originally Palazzo Sperelli) from Giacomo Giorgetti.  It passed to the Capuchins in 1881 and now belongs to the University of Perugia.




Palazzo Bonacquisti (16th century)

Galeazzo Filippo Pomponio Bonacquisti, Count of Panzo (outside Assisi) built this palace.  The architraves of the second floor windows bear the inscription: BONA ACQUISTA: MUNDANA TRANSITORIA: MOMENTA VANA (Do good, life is short, influence is vain).

In 1572, Giulio Cesare Galeotti (a local historian) recorded that “messer Galeazzo Filippucci” (presumably Galeazzo Filippo Pomponio Bonacquisti) found part of a Roman statue (presumably during the construction of the palace) and placed it in his house.  A large fragment from a marble statue of a seated goddess was still in the inner courtyard of Palazzo Bonacquisti in the late 20th century, when it was placed in the Museo Civico.  The statue is usually thought to have represented Minerva and to have come from the Roman temple.

The Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio acquired the palace in 2007, and it is to be adapted to provide exhibition space.   Maurizio Zubboli still runs the bookshop of the Touring Club Italiano on the ground floor, which his family established here in 1870.

Palazzo del Cardinale (1449)

This palace stands on the site of a Roman domus, remains of which survive in the basement. It was built by Cardinal Bartolomeo Roverella, who was the governor of Umbria in 1448-1451 and whose arms are over the door.  It passed to the family of Conte Francesco Bensi, the secretary to Pope Clement VII and then to the Fiumi family.   It now houses the Locanda del Cardinale.



Palazzo Fiumi-Roncalli (17th century)

This palace stands on a site that was once owned by the Fiumi family, which was the leading Ghibelline family in Assisi in the 14th-16th centuries.  The corbel at the right hand corner of the palace may have belonged to a 13th century gate that replaced a gate in the Roman walls.  The remains of the original survive under the palace.   [The remains of a similar gate from an unknown point in the walls were reused in the Abbazia di San Pietro and are now visible in the Museo di San Pietro].
The plaque on the façade of the current palace commemorates the fact that Giuseppe Fiumi hosted Giuseppe Garibaldi here in 1848, an event also commemorated in the name of the Piazzetta in which the palace stands. 


Palazzetto Vannola (17th century)

The name of Ignatius Vannola, the governor of Assisi in 1625, is inscribed on the façade of the palace.  It later became the "Leone d' Oro", the first hotel to open in Assisi, which probably took its name from the relief of a lion [on the portal].





Villa Gualdi (ca. 1873)

   

This recently-restored villa stands on the site of a medieval church and hospice, San Salvatore delle Pareti.   It was from this point that St Francis blessed Assisi in 1226 as his followers took him to Santa Maria degli Angeli to die.  A relief on its facade depicts this event.


Return to Monuments of Assisi.


Return to Walk I (Palazzo Bonacquisti).


Return to Walk II (Palazzo del Cardinale; Palazzo Fiumi-Roncalli; and

Palazzetto Vannola).


Return to Walk III ( Palazzo Bartocci Fontana and Palazzo Bernabei).


Return to Around Assisi ( Villa Gualdi).


Return to the home page on Assisi.